Paul Dixon
Biographic Data
| ID | 3673513 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Dixon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Dixon |
| SIGNATURE | DIXON P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of York |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6366-3253 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 225 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
‘A deep aversion to democracy’: The British Army and the authoritarian perspective on Northern Ireland
This article identifies an Authoritarian theory for explaining the British state's approach to Northern Ireland, which emphasises the importance of repression, rather than conciliation, in managing conflict. Authoritarians, drawing on Neorealism and Strategic Theory, assume that the state is a ‘Single Rational Actor'. Paradoxically, although Authoritarians identify as ‘Strategists' or ‘Military Historians' – with close links to the military – the…
Algerian independence and the British left: Solidarities and resistance in a decolonising world
Workers and the “Golden Age” of Social Democracy? An Introduction
Inescapable entrapments? The civil–military decision paths to Uruzgan and Helmand
This is a fascinating book not just because of its contents but also due to the identity of the author. Mirjam Grandia Mantas is Assistant Professor of International Security Studies at the Netherlands Defence Academy and a commissioned officer serving in the Royal Netherlands Army. Yet unlike so many of her colleagues who are military academics, or academic militarists, Mantas has had the integrity to write a PhD and now a book which has deeply …
Bringing politics back in: Interpretations of the peace process and the security challenge in Northern Ireland
There are contrasting interpretations of the Northern Ireland peace process which have competing implications for the lessons to be drawn from the conflict. This article offers a Constructivist Realist critique of three leading perspectives on the peace process: Neoconservative, Cosmopolitan and Conservative Realists (or Consociationalists). The Neoconservative perspective emphasises the importance of security policy in defeating terrorists befor…
Lions led by donkeys'? Britain's war in Afghanistan, 2001-2014
This article argues that Theo Farrell's book Unwinnable is a semi-official British Army history of the Afghan war and reflects the 'dominant military narrative'. The book's argument is contradictory, it suggests that NATO was 'learning, adapting and winning' the war but the politicians stabbed the military in the back by withdrawing just as a turning point had been reached in 2009-11. This was Farrell's optimistic analysis when the war was ongoin…
Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process
Counterinsurgency wars and the Anglo-American alliance: The special relationship on the rocks
Andrew Mumford's stimulating new book raises some big questions about counter-nsurgency (COIN). The book examines the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the United States through the lens of counter-insurgency. The contextual chapters consider Britain and the US as empires and then discuss their military cultures. If the US is the dominant imperialist state then what autonomy does or can the UK have over its defence and foreign policy? Th…
What Politicians Can Teach Academics: ‘Real’ Politics, Consociationalism and the Northern Ireland Conflict
Politics recovered: Realist thought in theory and practice
Realism is often associated with Conservatism, Realpolitik or the assumptions of Neo-Realism in international relations theory. Realism also became associated with the aggressive and cynical foreig
Insurgencies and counterinsurgencies: National styles and strategic cultures
This edited collection considers the role of national styles and strategic cultures in shaping the characteristics of counter-insurgency warfare in a number of states—the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, the United States, Germany and Israel—as well as of insurgencies—Algeria, Ireland, Palestine and Afghanistan. Two conflicts, in Greece and Syria, are seen as ‘interacting’, although this could be true of all insurgencies. Élie Tenenbaum's i…
No solution: The Labour government and the Northern Ireland conflict, 1974–79
The ‘British’ experience in Northern Ireland made political and military policy-makers cautious of becoming more deeply involved in the war in Yugoslavia 1991–5. The conflict appeared, at that point, to be getting worse rather than better. The Irish Republican Army's (IRA) 1994 ceasefire and the peace process, leading to the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement of 1998, transformed perceptions. In the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Br…
Paradigms at Play: The Short Stories of Machado de Assis
In reference to the question of characterization, Machado de Assis' theoretical statements are consistent and show a commitment to psychological truth. At the same time, the author's doubts about the realist school are manifest as a method of characterization different from the usual practice of creating lifelike individuals. Machado's interest, widely demonstrated in his short stories, is more relational and consists of building models of contra…
Historical experience: Burden or bonus in today's wars? By Eric Sangar
Journal Article Historical experience: burden or bonus in today's wars? By Eric Sangar Get access Historical experience: burden or bonus in today's wars?. By Eric Sangar. Berlin: Rombach Verlag. 2014. 260pp. Index. £25.00. ISBN 978 379309 748. Paul Dixon Paul Dixon 1Kingston University, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 91, Issue 2, March 2015, Pages 414–416, https://doi.org/…
The political impossibility of modern counterinsurgency: Strategic problems, puzzles and paradoxes. By M. L. R. Smith and David Martin Jones
Journal Article The political impossibility of modern counterinsurgency: strategic problems, puzzles and paradoxes. By M. L. R. Smith and David Martin Jones Get access The political impossibility of modern counterinsurgency: strategic problems, puzzles and paradoxes. By M. L. R. Smithand David Martin Jones. New York: Columbia University Press. 2015. 262pp. Index. £30.95. ISBN 978 0 23153 912 8. Available as e-book. Paul Dixon Paul Dixon 1Kingston…
Northern Ireland Since 1969
The conflict in Northern Ireland since 1969 has cost over 3,600 lives and about 100,000 people in Northern Ireland live in a household where someone has been injured in a troubles-related incident. This has been a key issue in British and Irish politics and the recent peace process in Northern Ireland and the current ‘War on Terrorism’ has stimulated international involvement and a desire to ‘learn the lessons’ of ‘the troubles’. Although Norther…
Association of Weekly Suicide Rates with Temperature Anomalies in Two Different Climate Types
Annual suicide deaths outnumber the total deaths from homicide and war combined. Suicide is a complex behavioral endpoint, and a simple cause-and-effect model seems highly unlikely, but relationships with weather could yield important insight into the biopsychosocial mechanisms involved in suicide deaths. This study has been designed to test for a relationship between air temperature and suicide frequency that is consistent enough to offer some p…
NDVI variation and its relation to climate in Canadian ecozones
Parks Canada began the Northern Satellite Monitoring Program in 1997, with the objective of tracking large‐scale vegetation variation in Canadian ecosystems and helping land managers to develop appropriate management practices in response to climate change. Under this program, a sequence of 10‐day composite Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)‐derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from 1985 to 2007 was examined to…
The politics of conflict: A Constructivist Critique of Consociational and Civil Society Theories
This article presents a (critical realist) constructivist critique of both consociational and civil society/transformationist approaches and their crude understandings of politics and the prospects for political change. Consociationalism's primordialist or essentialist foundation leads it towards a world‐weary, pessimistic, conservative realism about how far ‘divided societies’ may be transformed. Advocates of the civil society approach, in contr…
Is Consociational Theory the Answer to Global Conflict? From the Netherlands to Northern Ireland and Iraq
Neo-conservatives and liberal interventionists subscribe to the idealistic belief that external powers can successfully re-engineer states into Western capitalist democracies. Consociationalism is a prominent or even dominant theory for managing conflict in ‘ethnonationally divided societies’. The consociational model is based on the Dutch experience of managing ‘plural conflict’ from 1917 to 1967. This article argues that consociationalism has b…
Hearts and Minds’? British Counter-Insurgency Strategy in Northern Ireland
This article exposes some of the problems of ‘classical’ British ‘hearts and minds’ counter-insurgency theory of the sixties by applying it to the Northern Ireland conflict. The four requirements of counter-insurgency theory were: demonstrating ‘political will’ to defeat the insurgents as the key to victory; the importance of ‘the battle for hearts and minds’ of the affected population; ‘police primacy’ over the army in defeating insurgents; and …
Hearts and Minds’? British Counter-Insurgency from Malaya to Iraq
This article introduces this special issue of The Journal of Strategic Studies by discussing the British model of counter-insurgency. General (later Field Marshal) Sir Gerald Templer associated the phrase 'hearts and minds' with Britain's apparently successful counter-insurgency campaign in Malaya (1948–60). The phrase 'hearts and minds' is generally associated with a less coercive approach to counter-insurgency which emphasises the importance of…
Can regional resource shares be based only on prevalence data? An empirical investigation of the proportionality assumption
The Anglo-Irish Agreement: Origins and Impact
The Approach and Argument: Power, Ideology and ‘Reality’
Political Skills or Lying and Manipulation? The Choreography of the Northern Ireland Peace Process
The ‘real war’ and ‘propaganda war’ fought over Northern Ireland for thirty years polarised party and public opinion. The key dilemma faced by politicians during the recent peace process has been how to wind down the ‘war’ and win sufficient party and public support for an accommodation between unionists and nationalists which falls so far short of previous expectations. Scripts telling contrasting stories have been prepared to convince rival rep…
Northern Ireland
Hearts and Minds’? British Counter-Insurgency from Malaya to Iraq
This article introduces this special issue of The Journal of Strategic Studies by discussing the British model of counter-insurgency. General (later Field Marshal) Sir Gerald Templer associated the phrase 'hearts and minds' with Britain's apparently successful counter-insurgency campaign in Malaya (1948–60). The phrase 'hearts and minds' is generally associated with a less coercive approach to counter-insurgency which emphasises the importance of…
Paths to peace in Northern Ireland (I): Civil society and consociational approaches
This article comes in two parts. Part I describes the consociational and civil society approaches to conflict resolution. Consociationalism is a 'top‐down' form of power‐sharing which is elite‐oriented and sceptical of democracy. It is also distinctive in its preference for ethnic autonomy or segregation as a means for producing a more conducive environment for conflict resolution. By contrast the civil society or 'bottom‐up' model favours the ex…
Paths to peace in Northern Ireland (II): The peace processes 1973–74 and 1994–96
Part II of this article argues first, that the Northern Ireland political elite generally lack the ability to bring their supporters with them towards a political settlement. Secondly, there is little evidence to suggest that on constitutional questions the political elites are unrepresentative of their voters. Thirdly, the reformist civil society approach appears to offer a way out of the current impasse by creating an environment in which accom…
The politics of conflict: A Constructivist Critique of Consociational and Civil Society Theories
This article presents a (critical realist) constructivist critique of both consociational and civil society/transformationist approaches and their crude understandings of politics and the prospects for political change. Consociationalism's primordialist or essentialist foundation leads it towards a world‐weary, pessimistic, conservative realism about how far ‘divided societies’ may be transformed. Advocates of the civil society approach, in contr…
The influence of households on drinking behaviour: A Multilevel Analysis
Is Consociational Theory the Answer to Global Conflict? From the Netherlands to Northern Ireland and Iraq
Neo-conservatives and liberal interventionists subscribe to the idealistic belief that external powers can successfully re-engineer states into Western capitalist democracies. Consociationalism is a prominent or even dominant theory for managing conflict in ‘ethnonationally divided societies’. The consociational model is based on the Dutch experience of managing ‘plural conflict’ from 1917 to 1967. This article argues that consociationalism has b…
The usual english doubletalk: The British political parties and the Ulster Unionists 1974–94
The result of the 1992 Westminster general election highlighted once again the influence of the Ulster Unionist bloc of MPs at Westminster. The “understanding” reached between the Conservative government and the Unionists in July 1993 is set in the context of previous “understandings” reached between the Unionists and the British Labour Party. Paradoxically, it was the traditionally nationalist Labour Party that cut a deal with the Unionists whil…
Peace Within the Realms of the Possible'? David Trimble, Unionist Ideology and Theatrical Politics
This article uses a theatrical metaphor to achieve a more empathetic and nuanced explanation of David Trimble's leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party since 1995. This article focuses on three criticisms of Trimble's leadership: (1) his incoherent and contradictory ideology; (2) the lack of idealism in Trimble's unionism and his failure to expound a clear civic unionism; (3) the unionist leader's failure to move further towards nationalism durin…
Britain's ‘Vietnam syndrome’? Public opinion and British military intervention from Palestine to Yugoslavia
There have been calls for policymakers to draw ‘lessons’ from Britain's experience of Empire and Northern Ireland to inform a new generation of post-Cold War interventions by the international community. This article emphasises the role that domestic public opinion, galvanized by the impact of casualties and the plight of military relatives, has played in shaping Britain's experience of ‘military intervention’ in the ‘civil wars’ of Palestine, No…
No solution: The Labour government and the Northern Ireland conflict, 1974–79
The ‘British’ experience in Northern Ireland made political and military policy-makers cautious of becoming more deeply involved in the war in Yugoslavia 1991–5. The conflict appeared, at that point, to be getting worse rather than better. The Irish Republican Army's (IRA) 1994 ceasefire and the peace process, leading to the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement of 1998, transformed perceptions. In the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Br…
Hearts and Minds’? British Counter-Insurgency Strategy in Northern Ireland
This article exposes some of the problems of ‘classical’ British ‘hearts and minds’ counter-insurgency theory of the sixties by applying it to the Northern Ireland conflict. The four requirements of counter-insurgency theory were: demonstrating ‘political will’ to defeat the insurgents as the key to victory; the importance of ‘the battle for hearts and minds’ of the affected population; ‘police primacy’ over the army in defeating insurgents; and …
The politics of antagonism: Explaining McGarry and O'Leary
Religion, Pragmatic Fundamentalism and the Transformation of the Northern Ireland Conflict
Since 11 September 2001, the religious dimension of conflict has been the focus of increasing attention. In The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington has identified the West in religious-cultural terms, as Christian with a dominant democratic culture emphasizing tolerance, moderation and consensus. The persistence of conflict in Northern Ireland among `White' Protestant and Catholic Christians undermines this simplistic argument and demands a more s…
Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process on the World Stage
Journal Article Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process on the World Stage Get access Paul Dixon Paul Dixon PAUL DIXON is senior lecturer in politics at Kingston University in London. He has published Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace and is completing a book entitled The Northern Ireland Peace Process: Choreography and Theatrical Politics. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Scie…
Can regional resource shares be based only on prevalence data? An empirical investigation of the proportionality assumption
Inescapable entrapments? The civil–military decision paths to Uruzgan and Helmand
This is a fascinating book not just because of its contents but also due to the identity of the author. Mirjam Grandia Mantas is Assistant Professor of International Security Studies at the Netherlands Defence Academy and a commissioned officer serving in the Royal Netherlands Army. Yet unlike so many of her colleagues who are military academics, or academic militarists, Mantas has had the integrity to write a PhD and now a book which has deeply …
Counterinsurgency wars and the Anglo-American alliance: The special relationship on the rocks
Andrew Mumford's stimulating new book raises some big questions about counter-nsurgency (COIN). The book examines the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the United States through the lens of counter-insurgency. The contextual chapters consider Britain and the US as empires and then discuss their military cultures. If the US is the dominant imperialist state then what autonomy does or can the UK have over its defence and foreign policy? Th…
Politics recovered: Realist thought in theory and practice
Realism is often associated with Conservatism, Realpolitik or the assumptions of Neo-Realism in international relations theory. Realism also became associated with the aggressive and cynical foreig
The usual english doubletalk: The British political parties and the Ulster Unionists 1974–94
The result of the 1992 Westminster general election highlighted once again the influence of the Ulster Unionist bloc of MPs at Westminster. The “understanding” reached between the Conservative government and the Unionists in July 1993 is set in the context of previous “understandings” reached between the Unionists and the British Labour Party. Paradoxically, it was the traditionally nationalist Labour Party that cut a deal with the Unionists whil…
Os contos de Machado de Assis: Mais do que sonha a filosofia
The politics of antagonism: Explaining McGarry and O'Leary
Paths to peace in Northern Ireland (I): Civil society and consociational approaches
This article comes in two parts. Part I describes the consociational and civil society approaches to conflict resolution. Consociationalism is a 'top‐down' form of power‐sharing which is elite‐oriented and sceptical of democracy. It is also distinctive in its preference for ethnic autonomy or segregation as a means for producing a more conducive environment for conflict resolution. By contrast the civil society or 'bottom‐up' model favours the ex…
Paths to peace in Northern Ireland (II): The peace processes 1973–74 and 1994–96
Part II of this article argues first, that the Northern Ireland political elite generally lack the ability to bring their supporters with them towards a political settlement. Secondly, there is little evidence to suggest that on constitutional questions the political elites are unrepresentative of their voters. Thirdly, the reformist civil society approach appears to offer a way out of the current impasse by creating an environment in which accom…
An assessment of US and Canadian smoking reduction objectives for the year 2000
OBJECTIVES: This study assessed whether US and Canadian smoking reduction objectives for the year 2000 are attainable. The United States seeks to cut smoking in its population to 15%; the Canadian goal is 24%. METHODS: Smoking data were obtained for the United States (1974-1994) and Canada (1970-1995) for the overall populations and several age-sex subpopulations. Analyses estimated trends, future prevalences, and the likelihood of goal attainmen…
The influence of households on drinking behaviour: A Multilevel Analysis
The state of cooking in England: The relationship of cooking skills to food choice
This article uses data from the 1993 Health and Lifestyles Survey of England to present findings on how, why and when people use cooking skills; where and from whom people learn these skills. The implications for policy are explored. The survey data suggests that socio‐economic status and education are associated with the sources of people’s knowledge about cooking. The first or prime source of learning about cooking skills was reported to be mot…
Britain's ‘Vietnam syndrome’? Public opinion and British military intervention from Palestine to Yugoslavia
There have been calls for policymakers to draw ‘lessons’ from Britain's experience of Empire and Northern Ireland to inform a new generation of post-Cold War interventions by the international community. This article emphasises the role that domestic public opinion, galvanized by the impact of casualties and the plight of military relatives, has played in shaping Britain's experience of ‘military intervention’ in the ‘civil wars’ of Palestine, No…
Political Skills or Lying and Manipulation? The Choreography of the Northern Ireland Peace Process
The ‘real war’ and ‘propaganda war’ fought over Northern Ireland for thirty years polarised party and public opinion. The key dilemma faced by politicians during the recent peace process has been how to wind down the ‘war’ and win sufficient party and public support for an accommodation between unionists and nationalists which falls so far short of previous expectations. Scripts telling contrasting stories have been prepared to convince rival rep…
Peace Within the Realms of the Possible'? David Trimble, Unionist Ideology and Theatrical Politics
This article uses a theatrical metaphor to achieve a more empathetic and nuanced explanation of David Trimble's leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party since 1995. This article focuses on three criticisms of Trimble's leadership: (1) his incoherent and contradictory ideology; (2) the lack of idealism in Trimble's unionism and his failure to expound a clear civic unionism; (3) the unionist leader's failure to move further towards nationalism durin…
Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process on the World Stage
Journal Article Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process on the World Stage Get access Paul Dixon Paul Dixon PAUL DIXON is senior lecturer in politics at Kingston University in London. He has published Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace and is completing a book entitled The Northern Ireland Peace Process: Choreography and Theatrical Politics. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Scie…
The Anglo-Irish Agreement: Origins and Impact
The Approach and Argument: Power, Ideology and ‘Reality’
Partition and Civil Rights
The partition of Ireland in 1920 was an unhappy compromise between contending interests, and widely seen as a temporary measure until Ireland could be reunited. Republicans and nationalists tended to believe that Ireland would be reunited as a state independent of the UK. The British and unionists, on the other hand, looked forward to a united Ireland more closely tied to Britain, either through a closer relationship within the Empire/Commonwealt…
Conclusion: Democracy, Violence and Politics
The First Peace Process, 1972–4: The Power-Sharing Experiment and Its Failure
The Crisis of British Policy over Northern Ireland, 1968–73
The End of the Peace Process? The Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, 1998–2007
The signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in 1998 was a remarkable achievement. The shape of the deal had been anticipated by: the Brooke–Mayhew talks of 1991–2; the Downing Street Declaration in December 1993; the Framework Documents of 1995; and the ‘Heads of Agreement’ document in 1998. What was impressive was the willingness of Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist Party to support an agreement that represented such a shift from their previo…
Bridging the Gap? The Peace Process, 1994–8
Endgame? The Origins of the Second Peace Process, 1988–94
The Limits of British Policy, 1974–81: From Withdrawal to Integration
Northern Ireland
Religion, Pragmatic Fundamentalism and the Transformation of the Northern Ireland Conflict
Since 11 September 2001, the religious dimension of conflict has been the focus of increasing attention. In The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington has identified the West in religious-cultural terms, as Christian with a dominant democratic culture emphasizing tolerance, moderation and consensus. The persistence of conflict in Northern Ireland among `White' Protestant and Catholic Christians undermines this simplistic argument and demands a more s…
Hearts and Minds’? British Counter-Insurgency Strategy in Northern Ireland
This article exposes some of the problems of ‘classical’ British ‘hearts and minds’ counter-insurgency theory of the sixties by applying it to the Northern Ireland conflict. The four requirements of counter-insurgency theory were: demonstrating ‘political will’ to defeat the insurgents as the key to victory; the importance of ‘the battle for hearts and minds’ of the affected population; ‘police primacy’ over the army in defeating insurgents; and …
Political science (36 works) · Politics (28 works) · Law (26 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Irish and British Studies (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Political economy (15 works) · History (11 works) · Military History and Strategy (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works)